Cape Verdean native is senior pastor of New Bedford church

NEW BEDFORD — Originally from Cape Verde, the Rev. Ramiro Monteiro, 38, is the new leader of the International Church of the Nazarene.

LINDA ANDRADE RODRIGUES

NEW BEDFORD — Originally from Cape Verde, the Rev. Ramiro Monteiro, 38, is the new leader of the International Church of the Nazarene.

The Rev. Kenneth Stanford, district superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene, installed him as senior pastor at the Pleasant Street sanctuary on Jan. 6.

"The church doesn't belong to me but to God, and I'm here to do God's will," said Monteiro. "I never thought I would be pastor in an English church."

A native of Sao Vicente, Monteiro was an unlikely candidate for the ministry.

"My family was not Christian, and we never went to church," he said.

Then one day he attended a service at the Nazarene church with his brothers, and he eventually adopted the faith.

"I had a great relationship with the pastor," Monteiro said of the cleric who would become the general superintendent of the global Nazarene Church.

Most members of the Church of the Nazarene live in the United States and Canada, but Cape Verde has one of the highest per capita populations of the evangelical Christian denomination.

Monteiro said that his calling to the ministry came when he was 15 years old.

"One day after service, I was sitting in the pew of the church; and I heard a voice say, 'Ramiro, I need you,'" he recalled. "I thought it was someone in the church, but nobody was there."

Then he heard the voice a second time: "Ramiro, I need you."

"I knew one thing," he said. "God was calling me."

But Monteiro was unsure about the vocation, and he went through a period of discernment.

Consequently, he visited one of the southeastern islands.

"They had a lot of rain sometimes, and I was very sad," said Monteiro. "I felt discouraged, and I didn't speak to anybody about what happened to me."

Then praying with a group of men, he heard one of them say, "God spoke to me. The devil is discouraging this man to be a pastor."

"I never saw this man before," said Monteiro. "It was another confirmation that God was calling me."

Monteiro entered the Nazarene seminary, where he studied for four years. He also earned a bachelor's degree in theology from the Graduate School of Brazil.

After ordination he served as senior pastor in Ponta do Sol, Santo Antao for a year and in Mindelo, Sao Vicente for four years.

Monteiro also began a relationship with a girl from Sao Vicente, who immigrated to New Bedford.

A year later, he took a one-month vacation and came to see her.

"But I never thought that one day I would come to America," he said. "I heard people say that it snowed in winter, and English was the worst language to learn."

The couple became engaged.

"I am going to pray for you to come back to Cape Verde," he told his fiance Elizabeth.

"But she was praying for me to change my mind to come to America," he said. "A lot of people want to come to America, but I love my island."

However, the separation proved insurmountable.

Monteiro waited five months for a visa, then returned to New Bedford.

He attended the International Church of the Nazarene with his fiance, and the former senior pastor, the Rev. J.R. Chavier, invited him to work with him. He also was interviewed by the district supervisor who arranged for him to work with the Cape Verde community.

His next hurdle was to learn the English language.

"I went to UMass Dartmouth to learn English, and the people who teach that are very professional and friendly," he said. "English was more of a problem, but God changed my heart. I enjoy being here. I love the American people and the way you treat people."

Monteiro became associate pastor of the International Church of the Nazarene, and the couple married. He conducted the Portuguese-speaking services and taught classes.

Then Chavier retired, and the Rev. Vince Crause served as interim pastor.

"I felt God put him here to help me," Monteiro said.

After two years working with both pastors, Monteiro was voted by the congregation to succeed Chavier as senior pastor. In November, the district board confirmed the selection.

"I want to help the church to have a sense that we are a family," said Monteiro. "We are to help each other and help God's church grow."

He also plans to take the ministry into the community.

"We need the right people in the right place for the right reason. (Pessoas certas, nos lugares certos, por motivos certos.) There are a lot of people who need our help, but we have a God who can do amazing things if we are faithful to him."

Now Monteiro is comfortable ministering to the members of his congregation in English, as well as Portuguese.

"God brought me to this country and to that church," he said. "It is a great church that God loves. I am only a servant, and I came here to serve."

Church Board Secretary Clay Forney said the congregation is elated about his installation.